My big idea to make the girl child count

I am currently a volunteer member of an International organization called ONE. ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organisation of more than 8 million people around the world taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. I joined it because I share their belief that the fight against poverty is not just about charity and giving the poor handouts, but lies in the championing for the wider societal justice and equality in resource allocation.

This week, I  have signed a petition for a campaign they are  running  dubbed “Make Girls Count”. This petition will form part of the prayers The ONE team will be presenting at the Addis Ababa Africa Union Summit in January 2018.

Through interaction with other petitioners worldwide, I have stumbled upon a startling statistics on the status of the girl child education especially in Africa. Current statistics show that 130 million girls around the world are being denied an education — and 53 million of them are right here in Africa. Without an education, no child can reach their full potential. This has to change.

How do we get every girl into school and learning? How do we make sure girls do not face violence at home, in school or on the street? How do we enable girls to become the engineers, entrepreneurs and political leaders of tomorrow?

Education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as a vital human right. Every girl and every boy should have the right to a quality education so that they can have more chances in life, including employment opportunities, better health and also to participate in the political process.

Early childhood education is vital to lifelong success. Educating girls specifically has a multiplier effect because educated girls turn out to be healthier women, have fewer children, earn more income and provide better health care for themselves and their future children. These benefits also are transmitted from generation to generation and across communities at large, making girls’ education one of the best investments a country can make.

Therefore as a matter of urgency, African leaders need to champion investments in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for holistic development, as quality early girl child education is bound to bring the high returns for individuals, societies and countries at large.

As much as great progress has been made in enrolling children in school, I believe it is not enough; we also need to ensure that they learn to read, develop wholesomely, and acquire the necessary life skills. Governments through education policy formulation need to give special attention to the most vulnerable and marginalized groups (including girls) who are most likely to be affected because of a lack of well-trained teachers, inadequate learning materials, and unsuitable education infrastructure.

As we work to make sure, every child goes to school, helping build schools, train teachers, advocating girl’s education, we must ensure girls have the chance to learn digital skills to truly have equal opportunities and be able to follow their ambitions.

The global gender gap in digital skills must be addressed with urgency for girls to be able to thrive. If you’ve opened a newspaper or a web browser lately, you will have likely seen reports of the demise of work as we know it.

“Robots could take away two-thirds of jobs in developing countries”, proclaimed Forbes magazine last year. “The long-term jobs killer is not China. Its automation,” read a New York Times headline.

Dig into these articles and you find predictions that automation of jobs through advances in artificial intelligence – part of the fourth industrial revolution* – presents a threat to many sectors of work.

Overall, the World Bank estimates that new technology could displace between one and two-thirds of workers worldwide. And the most vulnerable workers will be the hardest-hit. Men stand to gain 1 job for every 3 lost to technological advances, while the figure for women is only 1 in 5.

As with previous industrial revolutions, new jobs will emerge to replace those that disappear. To thrive in these workplaces of the future, sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) skills will be a necessity.

So how can we reverse this trend? A crucial first step would be for governments to include ICT education in their national curriculums and actively support girls’ participation. Civil society and the private sector should also play their part by tackling the barriers that are preventing girls from accessing digital skills education, including stereotypes and traditions, lack of role models, safety concerns and cost.

Global violence uniquely affects the girl child. Although international legal instruments have been in place for decades to protect the girl child, thousands of brutal acts of violence and neglect specifically targeting the girl child can be observed around the world on a daily basis. Some of these acts of violence include forced child marriages, female genital mutilation, sexual exploitation, prostitution, and trafficking, sexual harassment in schools and sexual assault in conflict and humanitarian situations.

Violence against the girl child is perpetrated on every continent, wielded by every social and economic class, and sanctioned to varying degrees by every form of government, every major religion, and every kind of communal or familial structure. There is no place of complete refuge for the girl child, only promises of stronger legal regimes and more robust non-governmental assistance.

Africa being predominantly male dominated society, the girl child is brought up with the notion that they have to acknowledge only hierarchical authoritarian system where the male in position of authority is right and everyone else especially women are wrong. This has sunk the dream of the African girl child further.

Young girls and teenagers want to say so many important things, I believe initiation of girl child empowerment programs through the Education systems with specific infrastructural and Legal support from Governments where the society can listen to the girl child, affirm their needs, Treasure their ideas, hopes, dreams and encourage their passions.

With this opportunity, we will allow the girl child to experience the world with fresh eyes and hopes